September 16, 2020
dismantle – verb : take (a machine or structure) to pieces
My favorite Magic content creator, Seth at Mountain Man Magic, released a video recently wherein he attempts to answer the question “should you buy Zendikar Rising set boosters?”
It’s a good video, and I unreservedly recommend watching it. He’s probably got the most reasonable take I’ve seen on the new set booster product. I’m now going to give you my own, far more unreasonable, take on set boosters:
They’re awesome! Best Magic product since the creation of 15-card boosters! Draft boosters are so 2019! Embrace change!
Thank you. Until next time…
Of course I have more to say.
Yes, I’m aware that no one (well, very, very few people) have yet opened a set booster. A few weeks ago Gavin Verhey of WotC opened two of them as part of his Good Morning Magic YouTube channel. The comments I saw about his video were largely negative, with the most common response appearing to be a variation of the following: “that was a lot of chaff for a product that’s supposed to be an alternative to getting so much chaff in draft boosters.”
Let’s first establish that “chaff”, as internet-active Magic players seem to describe it, is virtually any common, almost all uncommons, and most rares/mythics in a set. The number of “money” cards in any recently-released set is going to be minimal, with the rest being useful only in draft or jank (and sometimes not useful in any capacity.) I believe most people discussing Magic on the internet would also maintain that foil, showcase, or alternate-art versions of what they consider chaff to still be chaff.
Based on that, I’d argue that every random booster product WotC releases is packed with chaff. In the case of Collector Boosters, much of that chaff is foil or alternate art chaff, but still – chaff nonetheless.
The most recent Masters set, Double Masters, was released in VIP form for $100 a pack. And it’s still stuffed with chaff: 8 foil uncommons, 9 foil commons, 2 foil full-art lands, and 10 non-foil full-art lands. With a few rare (pun somewhat intended) exceptions, most of those cards are going to be widely perceived as chaff.
So the argument about set boosters containing “a lot of chaff”, while certainly true, doesn’t feel like a convincing argument against the product. All of Magic’s booster products are brimming with chaff.
People reacting to the Good Morning Magic set booster opening also railed at so much “draft chaff” being found in boosters not meant to be drafted. Again…true, but not much of an argument against the product. Only WotC has the data, but they recently stated that over half of all draft boosters are not used for any limited purpose (draft, sealed, 2HG, etc.) Those packs are simply opened and the cards are absorbed into a player’s collection. So huge numbers of players are already inundated with draft chaff in boosters they don’t use for drafting or any other limited format. Therefore, a non-draftable booster that reduces (but doesn’t eliminate) draft chaff seems perfectly reasonable.
If even $20-25 collector boosters are full of chaff and remain quite popular, then a $5-6 set booster with chaff is not problematic. The only way to remove chaff from boosters would be to release a non-draftable Masters set containing nothing but “money” cards. Can you imagine the price of a pack containing nothing but a random assortment of 12-15 valuable cards? And can you imagine the inevitable hoarding and markups that would come with such a release?
Despise it if you must, but random boosters are going to contain commons and uncommons, most of which have little or no financial value, even as foils, showcase cards, or alternate-art versions.
I believe it’s also important to remember several known qualities of the (possibly vast) majority of casual Magic players:
- They don’t buy singles. Foils, showcase cards, alternate-art cards – all of these can be very appealing to players who build their collections only by opening the occasional pack. Speaking of which…
- They enjoy opening packs “just for fun.” The internet hivemind tends to mock this behavior as pointless and financially wasteful, but millions of players all over the world seem happy to crack packs at the kitchen table and play with what’s inside.
- Financial value isn’t the leading factor in their behavior, if it’s even a factor at all. If a player opens a pack with a 50-cent rare, and they love the card and put it into a deck they’re playing, they’re going to be happy with the overall booster experience. They may even find homes for some of the draft chaff in their kitchen table decks. These players don’t likely know the financial value of the cards they’re opening, and they don’t care. Mock that if you must, but that doesn’t (and won’t) change the behavior.
- Foil curling hasn’t significantly altered how they feel about or how they value foil cards. Foils are still highly sought and enjoyed.
People have already been trying to generate EV (expected value) of set booster boxes (30 packs) compared to boxes of draft boosters (36 packs) to determine which box to buy. Which is fine if you place no value on the EXPERIENCE of opening a booster pack. I think this point is critical:
Set boosters have a very real chance of enhancing the value of the booster pack opening experience
Naturally, people have mocked WotC’s attempts to label the various sections of the set booster (Welcome, Fireworks, Big Finish, Epilogue.) Which is fine – most players won’t know which cards belong in which section as they go through their set boosters. And not everyone that places a value on the booster-opening experience will feel set boosters are worth the ~$1 price increase over a draft booster. Some players will see no value in art cards, or won’t care a whit about the set of commons and uncommons in each pack that are thematically linked. And the “foils are cardboard Pringles!” crowd will see no value in a guaranteed foil in every pack.
But I reckon I speak for a pretty large segment of the casual playerbase when I say set boosters look far more interesting than draft boosters to just open up and look through. Will there still be draft chaff in these non-draftable packs? Of course – that’ll be true of any pack I open “just for fun.” But I will get LESS of that chaff than draft boosters, with chances at increased numbers of uncommons compared to commons, and/or opening 2 or more rares. And while I don’t seek out or collect foils, I do really enjoy getting them in packs and adding them to my collection. A guaranteed foil per pack is a nice perk.
If over half of all draft boosters are just opened “for fun”, then designing a reasonably-costed pack (i.e. one that costs a lot less than a collector booster) that caters to the pack-cracking experience makes a plethora of sense. That said:
- If you’re against opening packs for any reason other than limited, then of course it’s a pointless product for you.
- If you place no value in the experience of opening a booster, then of course it’s a pointless product for you.
- If you feel the contents of a set booster don’t justify the increased cost over a draft booster, then of course it’s a pointless product for you.
- If you believe Magic cards should only be obtained by buying singles of the specific ones you want, then of course it’s a pointless product for you (in this case, all boosters are – except that someone has to open packs to get most of those singles you want to buy.)
I don’t need to know if the financial value of the average set booster box’s contents offset the difference in price compared to a draft booster box. Both boxes, if just opened for spits and wiggles, will bestow upon you lots of chaff/jank/useless cards. But set boosters seek to provide a different, and more interesting, opening experience. Until we’ve had a chance to try it out it’s difficult to know how much value to place on that experience, but I’m prepared to predict it’ll be worth the increased financial cost for a great many players. And I haven’t even touched on the potential play, financial, or nostalgia value of cards from “The List” that will be found in 25% of set boosters.
When collector boosters were announced there were a lot of predictions that they were a lame cash-grab gimmick that wouldn’t last. Now there’s a whole subset of players that feel the only packs that contain anything of value are collector boosters. Set boosters look poised to become the default way huge numbers of players crack packs, and I predict they are here for the indefinite future.
With the exception of in-person prereleases at some nebulous point in the future, I’m not sure I’ll ever want to open another draft pack of a new set.
Long live set boosters!
Casual Magicking 